Each of these porcelain teapots by Memphis group designer George Sowden has a steel basket filter with over 160,000 tiny holes to improve the taste of tea (+ slideshow).

The Joe teapot

British designer George Sowden, best-known for his work as part of the Memphis group – founded in Milan by Ettore Sottsass in 1981 – has designed three simple ceramic teapots.

The Joe teapot

"I started with this idea that the tea bag and the coffee pod are the probably the two worst inventions of the twentieth century, not just for ecological reasons but also for the fact that tea bags make lousy tea and coffee pods make lousy coffee," Sowden told Dezeen. "So I thought, I've got to do something about that."

The Oskar teapot

Inside each of his Softbrew teapots sits a stainless steel basket-like filter.

The Jakob teapot

The sides and bottom of the cylindrical filter are covered with very fine micro-engineered holes, allowing loose tea leaves to expand and unfurl in the boiling water.

The Softbrew filter

The Joe teapot has an exaggerated rounded body and over-sized handle, reminiscent of toy tea sets, while the Jakob teapot has a more angular form.

The Softbrew filter

The filter of the Oskar teapot protrudes slightly out of the top of its geometric profile.

The Oskar teapot

Oskar is available exclusively in white, while Joe and Jakob also come in bold colours.

The Oskar teapot

The teapots are being manufactured in China for Sowden's eponymous brand, which produces a range of tableware, crockery, cookware and other kitchen implements such as juice squeezers.

The Oskar and Jakob teapots

Sowden has previously designed kitchenware products for clients such as Alessi and Bodrum.

I hate to break it to you George but this design for making a cup of tea has been around since…well…forever.

The Bauhaus issued quite a few designs for teapots with infuser/drainers including a stunning one by Marianne Brandt in the early ’20s. By the 1950s, a good teapot came with an infuser/strainer. And of course in the early 70’s, Bodum hit their strides by designing a teapot with an infuser that could also ‘press’ the leaves to get the most flavour from a cup of tea.

So whilst it’s great to attempt to finesse an already existing design, please don’t make it sound as if your design is ground-breaking.

PLA

Nice design, but another case of a designer thinking that he or she has invented the wheel…